The Reign
by Scribe E
Summary: The Final Chapter. The Final Act.
1. Chapter 1

Well it had to happen, I'm writing my first serious Zim fic. When I say "serious" I mean just that. I'm not pulling any punches on this one. This may be a little or REALLY disturbing at times. By the end of this one, you're going to think of Zim in a whole new light. Or not, leave me alone. Heh. Ok no more funny. Starting now. Enjoy and buckle your seat belt for this one.  
  
Invader Zim: The Reign  
  
It all came down to an equation: Zim's equation. He had been working in his lab for quite some time, working out the kinks in an equation that made sense only to him. He had been plugging in numbers day after day, factoring in the different occurences and set backs that happened in his time on earth.   
  
"It just doesn't make sense to me." Zim said pounding his hand against the side of the console. In front of Zim lay a large keyboard attached to a 3-d screen with a large picture of the globe spinning on it. Zim's plans were numbers, Dib was a number, the whole damn planet was a number, so why couldn't he find a solution?  
  
"Hello master." Gir said, walking up to the stretched to the limit Invader. The small robot noticed his master hadn't slept in days, with bags underneath his eyes that seemed to almost touch the ground.  
  
"Leave me alone Gir."  
  
"But master..." Zim looked angrily at Gir, causing the tiny robot to get scared and scamper away. Placing his hand up to his face, underneath his mouth, Zim typed away faster at his keyboard. The screen flashed red everytime he entered in another equation, notifying the Invader that his theory was wrong. This frustrated Zim to no end. "WORK DAMN YOU!"  
  
Typing faster and faster at the board, beads of sweat began to fall down his face. He wiped them off quickly only to find two more to take their place. His fingers began to slam harder and harder against the keys as the screen flashed red more and more frequently. He began to type so fast that the screen was flashing red every other second. One last flash caused Zim to go over the edge.   
  
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Zim slammed his hands against the keyboard, to the point of almost having the keys pop out of place. He jumped out of his chair and began to break everything in his lab, enraged beyond belief. Zim had had enough of not being able to conquer such a meager planet while all the other Invaders had already conquered their planets in Operation Impending Doom 2. Just as Zim picked up a large pipe to break apart more of his lab, he noticed something flashing in the corner of his eye.   
  
"What?" Zim spun around quickly, jumped in front of his half broken screen and saw the color green flashing on it. "Green? But that would mean...."  
  
Zim put quickly melded his keyboard back together to the screen and began to span through the equations. This was it. By some unbelievable chance, Zim had finally found the ultimate equation to achieve his goals and it wasn't going to be pretty.  
  
"Gir." Gir was startled by his master's return to the upper part of the house as he sprung up from the couch.  
  
"Yes my master?" Gir's eyes went quickly to red then back to blue as he went back to his "stupid" side.   
  
"I'm going to be gone for a few days. You watch the house and try to not to break anything."  
  
"Uhhhhh ok? Are you going to Hawaii?" Zim sighed.  
  
"No, Gir, I'm not going to Hawaii. I'm going to take a 'journey'. When I come back, things will be a little different." Zim smiled wickedly to himself and began to walk back down to the lab. "Oh and Gir?"  
  
"Yes master?"  
  
"Make sure to watch the news in a couple of days or so. Should be enlightening."  
  
Dib was sitting in class when it happened. That morning he had wondered where Zim was for the past couple of days and why he hadn't been in class. It was a little odd and it usually meant that Zim was up to something, but he had never been gone for this long. Usually his plan would fizzle out around this time and he would be back, but something was different about this time. But back to the present, Dib was sitting in class when it happened.  
  
"OH MY GOD!" Cried someone from outside of the class. Dib and the rest of the class got out of their seats, along with Bitters, and walked out of the class. Instead of seeing a horrible sight, all they saw was everyone standing around a television within the teacher's lounge.  
  
"Reports today..." the reporter said, almost shaking. "Reports today stemming from the US to China have been bleak at best. Within every country, the main political figure or representative has been....has been....they're all dead."  
  
Dib couldn't speak as they showed pictures of a number of people crying over bodies covered in white sheets, blood flowing underneath it. Dib was shocked for a moment but his shock quickly turned into anger as he saw a familiar symbol in each of the shots of the dead leaders of the world: The Irken symbol...Zim's symbol.   
  
"He....but...." Dib ran out of the room of astonished people and began to make his way to Zim's house. He couldn't even find the words to describe how angry he was. He was angry at Zim. He was angry at himself for not stopping Zim. He was angry at the world for not believing him. However, Dib needed to think clearly now, more then ever. The anger wasn't going to get Zim for what he had done, but it wouldn't hurt either.  
  
"Finally." Dib stood in front of Zim's house and walked up to his door. Before he could reach the knob to open it, it eerily swung open. Dib stepped inside the house caustiously and began to look around the living room. Everything seemed in the normal order it had usually been when Dib was there. Just as Dib was about to investigate further, metallic hands from the walls clamped onto his arms and legs and pushed him against the wall, the front door slamming shut.  
  
"How nice of you to join me Dib." Zim said, stepping out of the shadows. "I hope you find your resting place to your liking, or not, I don't really care."  
  
"ZIM! YOU SONUVA..!" Dib wrestled with the metallic constraints, but to no avail.  
  
"HAHAHAHA! That's funny, you trying to break free and all. Pathetic, but funny none the less." Zim walked up to Dib. "I'm going to enjoy ripping off your arms and legs one at a time. But first.."  
  
Zim pressed a button on a remote control that popped out of his backpack and watched a screen drop down from the ceiling. On the screen were the two Tallest, sitting back in their chairs.  
  
"Oh Tallest." Zim said in an evil tone.  
  
"Zim. How many times do we have to explain to you that we are not to be contacted during..."  
  
"Shut up." Zim said as the Tallest looked at him in an astonished manner.  
  
"Wha....What did you say to us?" Purple asked.  
  
"I said 'Shut up' Do I need to reiterate for your puny brains, or have you fully grasped the concept of shutting your pie holes?"  
  
"THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ZIM! YOU'LL BE EXECUTED FOR SUCH..."  
  
"No I won't. In fact quite the opposite, you see you are going to hand over the entire Irken empire over to me. It will be used to fulfill my purposes and my purposes alone. In exchange, you will get to keep your lives as my servants."  
  
"You....YOU DARE? All we needed was a reason to terminate you Zim and this is it, you're going to be..." Before Red could finish his sentence, a glaring light fell from the sky, passing through Red's head, causing it to explode across the room, splattering green blood all over Purple.  
  
"Satellites. They are so very useful in this day and age don't you think Tallest?" Zim looked at Purple with an evil smirk, the remaining tallest now shaking. "Now, tell the people of Irk that the new name of the planet will be Planet Zim and that they will be working for me from now on. I trust we don't have a disagreement on this?"  
  
Purple shook his head, body still quivering.  
  
"Excellent, now chop to it before I have you executed for the kicks of it." Zim shut off the screen and turned around to the still entangled Dib. "Where were we?"  
  
"You...You...What the hell's happened to you?" Dib said, trying to break free. "You've done some pretty bad stuff Zim, but even I thought you had a limit. Killing all these people! YOU BASTARD!"  
  
"Quite the plan isn't it? Cut off the heads of every nation and watch the body convulse and eventually die. That is unless someone fills the void."  
  
"...You?"  
  
"You always were a quick one Dib."  
  
"But why?"  
  
"Well quite frankly it all has to do with an equation I came up with." Zim turned around and sat down on a chair which popped up from underneath the floor. "Basically it was meant to show me the exact reason as to why I hadn't been able to conquer this mudball yet, and it did just that with a few fring benefits."  
  
"What?"  
  
"In simple terms, the one thing that hampered me from doing what was necessary was that on a subconcious level I felt sorry for you people. I didn't know about it but it was there. Due to my multiple rejections and failures in life, I came to have an understanding with this underdog of a planet. That part of me had to go."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Your full of questions today aren't you? Well basically I just removed it from my brain." Zim pointed to a large scar on the side of his forehead. "It took awhile for the operation to fully remove that part of me, but a few days was more than enough time."  
  
"You operated on yourself?"  
  
"Yeah? Ain't it cool? So back to ripping your arms and legs from your body." Zim was about to push another button on his remote, when he heard something behind him.   
  
"Master....No." Gir was standing behind him with a laser in one of his hands, shaking nervously. "Hurting people is bad."  
  
"Oh poor Gir. You've been such a faithful servant to me in the past. Stupid yes, but faithful. Unfortunately your sentimentality to the world that your on has gotten the best of you." Zim said smiling wickedly. "So faithful. So stupid. So easy to destroy. Computer: Manifest EMP Wave for Base Unit."  
  
As Zim said this the house sprung into action and released a large EMP wave, knocking out all of the machines in the house. When the wave hit Gir, sparks began to fly and his body blew apart like a poorly made toy. The Irken laughed as the wave swept over the rest of the house, causing the mechanical arms holding Dib to release him.  
  
"NOW ZIM I'M GOING TO..!"  
  
"I'd run if I were you." Zim said as Dib stopped right before attacking him.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You have twenty seconds to leave my house while my power is out. If you're still here, the arms will proceed to rip your body into cube size pieces."  
  
Dib thought about it for a second and quickly jumped out a nearby window as Zim began to laugh triumphantely. Zim had won, but at what cost?  
  
End Chapter 1  
  
Dark Stuff and there's more to come.  
  
Chapter 2 coming soon. 


	2. Chapter 2

I bet a lot of you are asking yourselves: What happened to the funny Scribe E? Why is he writing this crazy serious story? Is the funny E dead as we know him? Who put this flounder into my pants? Well I can't answer the last one but I can answer the others. Basically, three words sum up why I wrote this: I felt like it.....wait thats four words. Anyway, I'm still gonna be working on Zim in College and eventually Invader Dib, but I really wanted to expand my.....Ziminess. So anyway, here's chapter 2.  
  
The Reign: Chapter 2  
  
Zim had now thought of three varying ways to take over the planet. One was easy and boring with minimal deaths. The second was hard and involved pointing nuclear warheads back at their masters. The third was not only fun, but would cause a massacre of which the world had never seen. Zim smiled to himself as he knew exactly which path to take.  
  
"Oh poor Gir." Zim said as he lifted up the head of his defunct robot. "I knew him Horatio.....Hmmmm, that's from an earth poem as I understand it. Computer: Remind me to look and see if this sudden blurb of poetry isn't some kind of byproduct of the experiment."  
  
"Highly Illogical." The computer blurted out in a cold mechanical voice.  
  
"Yes, I know. It gives me something to do though before the storm." Zim walked over one of his various consoles and sat down in front of it. He scratched at the scar on his forehead and pressed a button before him. The screen flashed on and another Irken appeared before him on the rotating picture.  
  
"How goes the process, Invader Dieg?" Zim asked the invader before him.  
  
"Well sir, as you wanted most of the Irken populace has had your visage tattoed into their backs."  
  
"Excellent." Zim reclined in his chair and stretched his arms behind his head. "And how goes the subordination of the war council?"  
  
"Ummmm, not as well as expected. Apparently they're not taking you seriously sir."  
  
"How many children do each of the generals have?"  
  
"I think about 6 each, you know that the generals are always using their power to get prosperous. Many of them want to spread on their lineage and..."  
  
"Kill three of each generals' prodigy and if they still refuse, torture the rest in front of them."  
  
"Sir, don't you think thats a bit extreme. Pushing them to such a breaking point may not be very..."  
  
"How many children do you have Dieg?" Zim asked looking directly at Dieg.  
  
"Tw...Two children sir."  
  
"Do we understand each other?"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Good, now do as I say." Zim shut off the screen and turned his chair around. "That'll teach them for laughing at me. Heh."  
  
Zim noticed that the head of Gir was still in his hand and threw it away as he got out of his chair. Walking across the lab, Zim walked to a big red light that seemed to be taken out of 2001 Space Odyssey.  
  
"Computer: Review the plan for overtaking of earth."  
  
"Searching....." The computer shut off for a second then turned on again. "Step 1: Operation to remove sentamentality....Complete. Step 2: Destruction of all nations political leaders....Complete. Step 3: Unknown."  
  
"Of course you don't know. That's for me to know and you to find out." Zim smiled walking over to a large screen which was about the size of a movie screen. "Let's see, 1 and 2 completed eh? Now....3."  
  
"What the hell?" Someone in the city of Washington D.C. said as he looked at his television to see Zim's visage staring back at him. All over the nation's capital, all screens were now presented with the small Irken invader in front of them.   
  
"Hello people of stink capital." Zim smiled as he waved. "I know this must be a dramatic time in all your lives, what with your president dead and all. All of you must be thinking to yourselves about how this must be a declaration from some foreign country for war. Well thats half true. I am Zim and I have declared war on your planet."  
  
The whole nation stopped dead in their tracks as every person became glued to any screen nearby.  
  
"Of course no one would take me seriously if I were just to walk up to the white house or whatever and declare my sovereignty. So, I must do something to set an example. Someone must show the world how deadly serious I am and guess what? You're elected."  
  
Zim took out a remote control out of his pocket and showed it in front of the screen.  
  
"See this? This is the larger part of a machine that was placed over your heads while you slept, none of you the wiser. With my advanced technology, I was able to do it without being seen by any of you stinkbeasts, last night actually. You see the sky isn't really there, its all television screens to put your tiny heads at rest."  
  
Zim pressed a button on the remote to make all the screens projecting the image of the sky over the people of Washington, D.C.'s heads go black. People began to panic as those closest to the walls of the dome tried to break their way out.  
  
"You'll find that there is no way out, which brings me to my next point." Zim lifted a green container in front of the screen. "This is a material found on the Planet Ir...Zim. Its quite harmless to me and my people, but to humans....well to humans it causes your hearts to implode in your chest and your eyes to pop out of your heads and other such brutalities. Of course, this process takes a good thrity minutes to take effect. Your bones will melt away by this point, have a nice day."  
  
Zim pressed the button on the remote releasing the gas all over D.C. and turned away from the screen. He didn't need the picture to hear the screams coming from the capitol. He smiled, today was a good day for Zim.  
  
Dib didn't know what to do. He couldn't get near Zim anymore, he knew that much. Zim would have taken precautions to make sure that the young boy could not have made his way as easily as he had before. When Dib had seen the news, he didn't even need to hear how or when the people had died, most of them couldn't even be recognized as being human, their bodies being so contorted. He knew that this was Zim's handywork.   
  
"Your telling me that Zim did all this? Yeah right." Gaz said playing away at her gameslave. "Its most likely a biological experiment gone awry, happens all the time."   
  
"Typical Gaz response." Dib put on his black overcoat and reached for the door. "I'm going out for some food, is Dad still in the basement?"  
  
"Yeah, he's working on some experiment. Who knows."   
  
"Yeah, well I'll be gone for an hour or so." Dib opened the door. "Hmmm, did we get a new lamp?"  
  
Gaz looked over at the green and black lamp. "That? We've always had that, I think."  
  
"Ok." Dib left the house and put his hands into his jacket. He had a lot on his mind, but as he let his mind drift, something stuck out in his head. One question that caused the hair on his neck to stand on end. Where did that lamp come from?   
  
Dib spun around as fast as he could and ran for the house but was too late. The device Zim had planted within Dib's house went off and the explosion not only decimated the house in a cloud of fire, but cause Dib to be thrown back several feet. The young boy picked himself off the ground and wiped the smoke off of his face. He took off his glasses, which had shattered from the impact and ran to the shattered remains of his house. He burned his hands against the flaming rubble but he didn't care, he just wanted to know that his family was all right.  
  
"DAD? GAZ!! DAADD! GAAZZ!" Dib kept yelling out their names as he pushed aside more and more rubble. As he cleared more and more debris, he came upon Gaz's gameslave. He lifted it off the ground and put it down in horror as he saw Gaz's burned hands attached to the device, with no sign of her body. Tears began to stream down his face as he looked over to see his father's bloody lab coat, most of it burned.  
  
"No...No...No..." Dib collapsed to the ground as more and more tears went down his face. The ambulances and fire trucks arrived just as Dib's sadness turned to anger and only one word could leave his mouth.  
  
"......Zim."  
  
End Chapter 2 


	3. Chapter 3

The Reign  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Zim stood atop what was left of the Washington Monument, watching as the government clean up crews disposed of the many dead bodies. Throughout the former capitol of the nation, no live person could be found who was not wearing a containment suit, or who happened to be an alien. The Irken Invader smiled to himself for a bit then pressed a button on his wrist, revealing a tiny screen.   
  
"Computer." The screen flashed brightly and responded.   
  
"Operational."  
  
"Good. So far, it seems that the Glorex compound was succesful in maximum amount of casualties."  
  
"As predicted."  
  
"Yes, as predicted." Zim knelt down on the point of the pointed monument, rockets blazing on his backpack, keeping him from falling. "Well this was productive but there was nothing fun about it."  
  
"Query: What is fun?"   
  
"Fun...hmmmm...Well, its this!" Zim grabbed a small cube from his back pocket and threw it down to one of the clean up crews. As it hit the ground, thousands of tiny shards fired out of its surfaces. The glass shards didn't have enough momentum to kill the workers, but it was more than enough to tear the suits open. The workers screamed as the same effects which overtook the dead now happened to them. "HAHAHAHA!"  
  
"Query: Fun is the killing of others?"  
  
"Actually, yes." Zim smiled once again, jettisoning his way off the monument capitol before being seen. The rockets flames burned low for a second then burst into high gear as Zim flew higher and higher into the skies.  
  
"Surveillance completed."  
  
"This part anyway. Computer: Have the voot runner ready within the hour."  
  
"Very well. Query: More surveillance?"  
  
"Nope, more fun." Zim smiled to himself and blasted beyond the site of what was once the nation's capitol.  
  
Meanwhile, in an weapon's shop many miles away....  
  
"So this is all you'll be getting today?" The stout cashier asked as he put another gun on the table in front of him.  
  
"Maybe..." The short figure said, picking up the gun and inspecting it.  
  
"Take your time."  
  
"....What are those on the wall?" The short figure pointed to two small circular devices, placed next to one another.  
  
"Oh, well those would be something you won't find at your local armory." The cashier smiled and took the two devices off the wall. "These are called Pulse grenades. They have quite the 'kick' to them. Probably take out a small village, very top secret stuff. I have this cousin who got them for..."  
  
"I didn't want to hear your life story." The figure said agitated. "Are they worth it or what?"  
  
"Oh they're worth it all right. I'll give you a bargain, saaayyyy 300 for the two?"  
  
"Deal. Wrap them up with the others."   
  
"All right, lets see, the two grenades, combat knife, Ak-47, two .45s, and enough bullets to take out a small army...your total comes to 1500 plus tax."  
  
"Here." The figure threw a credit card on the table and gathered the supplies together.  
  
"Wait! There's a thirty day waiting period for all these."  
  
"This says different." The figure threw a wad of hundred dollar bills on the table and walked out the door.  
  
"Yes they most certainly do. Your a great bargainer Mr. Membrane."  
  
Dib turned around and smiled at the weapons' cashier. "So I'm told."  
  
After getting away from all of the police and medical workers, they tried to take Dib away to a foster home, seeing as how he no longer had any other family. After a lucky escape, Dib managed to look through the rubble of his house and found the lab that the police had missed. He took a couple credit cards and emptied out the bank account his father had left him in case of emergency. A few calls here, a few favors there, and Dib was able to find himself an crooked arms dealer who would do anything for the right amount of money. Lord only knew who that guy had sold guns to in the past.   
  
"Christ." Dib strapped most of the weapons to his back and others in his pockets as he walked toward Zim's house. "I can't believe I have to do this."  
  
Dib shook his head and remembered the dead bodies of his father and sister as he slammed in the clips into the bottoms of the two .45's. Pulling back on the triggers, he frightened himself realizing how commonplace this was becoming to him. Finally, reaching Zim's house, Dib hid behind the nearby fence.  
  
"Let's see these should take out the gnomes, get me to the door. The 47 should be able to hold off the security in the house, at least long enough for me to make it to the laboratory downstairs. The knife should take out whatever else Zim has in store for me, but Zim....you Zim..." Dib placed the guns beside his head and sprung out from behind the fence. "I kill you with my bare hands."  
  
The bullets tore through the robotic gnomes, causing them to spin in their places. 40 hours of Virtual Reality training in his dad's lab was more than enough for Dib to be prepared in case this situation ever had happened. Lunging for the door, Dib threw the .45s away, bullets gone. He kicked his way through the door, took out the 47 strapped to his back and began to fire random bursts into the oncoming arms.  
  
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALllleeerrr..." The computerized voice was drowned out by the sound of gunfire then silenced entirely as Dib's gun ran out of bullets. The young boy looked around at the many arms now riddled with bullets and smiled.   
  
"Easier then expected. I'm coming for you Zim." Dib ran to the kitchen and slid down the trashcan entrance to the lab. Various surveillances of the house had Dib informed as to where everything in the house was, valuable information in a situation like this. Sliding down the tube, Dib finally made it to the laboratory of the Irken Invader. "ZZZIIIMM!"  
  
"Guns." All of Dib's guns flew off his back and onto the nearest wall. Zim smiled as he snapped his fingers. "Knives."  
  
Dib's one knife flew out of his pocket, cutting against his leg.  
  
"AAAA!" Dib knelt down and checked the wound, nothing too serious.  
  
"That should pretty much take care of all your weapons." Zim stepped off his chair and walked to the downed Dib. "No alien killing today."  
  
"Up yours!" Dib clenched his hand into a fist and threw it as hard as he could at Zim's face. His fist slammed against the Irken's skin and Dib smiled. However, Dib's expression changed when he realized he had not hit the desired part of Zim's skin.  
  
"Cute." Zim held Dib's fist in his hand and began to squeeze. Dib cried in pain as he heard many of the bones in his hand give way. "I just broke six bones in your hand, think I can make it a dozen?"  
  
"How the hell?" Before Dib's question could be answered, Zim delivered a devastating roundhouse kick to the side of Dib's head, causing him to fly across the room.  
  
"That....didn't...hurt.." Dib fell to the floor, half unconcious, spitting out four of his back teeth.  
  
"How did I learn how to fight you ask? Well you see as an added bonus of the operation, I put in some self defense implants. A little ju-jitsu here, a little drunken boxing there, and I would be more than equipped to handle a scenario of this nature. Now if you would excuse me." Zim walked away from the downed Dib and went into the voot runner. Picking himself off the ground, Dib watched as Zim's voot runner began to take off.   
  
"No....chance...ZIM!" Dib picked his body off the ground and jumped up, barely grasping the bottom of the voot runner. As it began to climb to the sky, Dib made his way to a nearby hatch and climbed his way into the ship itself. Looking out the window nearest to him, Dib noticed that the voot runner had now reached space. He marveled at the view of the earth below, only to snap himself out of it, returning to his task. He made his way to the cockpit and watched Zim work the controls, back to Dib.  
  
"Don't move Zim. I'm taking you down."  
  
"Heh, your very resourceful." Zim spun around in his chair. "You do realize that I'll just kill you now?"  
  
"I'm afraid not Zim. This device will take us both out." Dib reached for one of the grenades in his pocket and lifted it to Zim's face.  
  
"Hmmmmm, how did I miss that one?"  
  
"SHUT UP! YOUR GOING DOWN HERE AND NOW!"   
  
"Quite the pickle I'm in now, eh? Most assuredly nothing could get me out of this situation. Oh wait, there is one thing. COMPUTER: OPERATION DEATHSTRIKE!"  
  
As Zim said this, Dib looked down at the earth through the window of the voot runner to see a large number of explosions and then one final catastrophic blast. The world, the planet earth, the home of over 6 billion people who dreamed, breathed and lived, was now gone. Nothing more than dust.  
  
End Chapter 3 


	4. Chapter 4

Wow, it has been awhile since I've written anything. I'm truly sorry for this but school has been getting harder and harder, and so I've been busy with that and social stuff. I'm still going to try to crank out the chapters for everything but it'll be a little harder when I'm in school, so when I dont have school I'll be able to create many a chapter.  
  
The Reign: Chapter 4  
  
Dib couldn't feel anything as he saw the blue orb he once called home explode before his eyes. The grenade slipped through his fingers as his knees gave way and the young boy fell to the ground.  
  
"Well." Zim said straightening his suit. "Apparently that was more than enough to get you off my case."   
  
"....." Dib said nothing as Zim knelt down beside his face.  
  
"Oooohhhhh poor Dib." Zim slammed his foot against Dib's head and watched the young boy hit into the wall. "You've lost your planet for which you were so intent on protecting. Its a shame really."  
  
"You bastard..."  
  
"A shame they couldn't have died in a more horrible way. HAHAHAHA!"  
  
Dib curled his fingers into a fist and flung it at Zim. The Irken Invader stepped out of the path of the punch and kicked Dib's arm against the side of the glass wall.  
  
"You always were such an annoying little thing weren't you?" Zim pushed harder into Dib's arm, cracking the glass, along with Dib's other arm. The young boy let out a cry as he felt his other arm begin to give way under the pressure. "Too bad you can't reach your little bomb to avenge your world, eh Stinkboy?"  
  
"I swear to God, Zim, I'm gonna..."  
  
"Didn't you see Dib? I killed your God along with everyone else on your pathetic planet." Zim outstretched one of his spider arms on his back and cracked it against the side of Dib's head, causing Dib to fly into the glass.   
  
"AAA!" Both Dib's arms were in pretty bad shape, both having a large amount of fractures and cuts. He could move neither.  
  
"Don't cry though Dib. You'll be joining them sooner then you think. Although, you'll be taking the trip to hell a little less pleasantly." Zim grabbed Dib by the collar and began to drag him along the floor of the ship. Dib's head banged against nearby poles as he futiley tried to escape the alien's grasp. "Ever wonder what happens to living beings exposed to the cold of space?"  
  
"........"  
  
"Well it's quite unpleasant I hear. Your organs start shooting out. Your eyeballs explode. I think you implode after that I'm not sure but we'll find out in a second won't we?" Zim smacked against the side of the airlock, causing it to slide open. "Enjoy your stay."  
  
Zim threw his enemy into the airlock and walked out, the door slamming behind him. Smoke began to stream across the bottom of the floor as Dib got to his feet.   
  
"Oh no." Dib perused over the room, looking for any kind of exit. After a few minutes, there was apparently no way out for Dib. "Crap."  
  
"How does it feel Dib? Knowing that your life is slowly ticking as you can do nothing." Zim looked in through the window. "Having your world dead to you in a foreign place where dog shit is treated better than you. Knowing that you'll have to live with the pieces of crap until you conquer every last one of them, but for some reason YOU CAN'T!.....Well now you know how I feel. May your race be feeling that in hell."  
  
Zim couldn't hear the obscenties Dib yelled as he walked away from the airlock, leaving the young boy to his fate.   
  
"Calm down Dib." Dib thought to himself. "There has to be an exit around here, there just has to be."   
  
Before Dib could find an escape route, the outer hull slowly began to open, giving way to the bitter cold of space. Air swept out of the room and strands of Dib's skin began to break apart, giving way to streams of blood with the door sliding more and more slowly. As Dib gasped for air, pain the only emotion filling his brain, something caught his eye. A small hole flashed open, stripped apart from the vacuum slowly overtaking the room. Dib leaped for it, quickly crawled through and pushed the nearest table against the side to cover it up, the hull now fully open.   
  
"AaaAA...." Dib tried to speak, but his injuries had been worse than he had originally thought. Before moving, Dib examined his body closly to get a better layout of his situation. His glasses were shattered beyond repair, large patches of skin were torn apart on his arms, legs, and upper torso, and apparently his windpipe was a little off balance.  
  
Pulling off his jacket, Dib ripped it into long strands, creating a turnicot on many of his slightly bloody wounds. As he tried to bite down on one of the strands to rip it off, one of the strands took two of his teeth with it. Unable to scream in pain, Dib clenched his jaw with his hands and winced. Still in an unbelievable amount of pain, Dib looked at the ground to see a puddle of blood collecting at his feet.  
  
"F.....F....uu...ccc..." Dib squeezed out before he passed out from blood loss.  
  
End Chapter 4 


	5. Chapter 5

I'm feeling in a dark mood, so here we go. If you haven't read this story, please look over the previous chapters. IS GOOD! Also, read my other stuff, I'm planning on updating everything real soon, WITH A VENGEANCE. Enjoy the dark.  
  
The Reign  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"And so a page turns in the life of Zim." The invader looked out the window of his ship, into the infiniteness of space. The dark, cold sterility of it now matched his own heart. Zim smiled. "Earth is a memory. My enemy crushed. The Irken empire mine. There's nothing I can't have."  
  
"Query." The computer rang out, Zim turning to it.  
  
"What is it computer?"  
  
"With subject Zim's dreams fulfilled, what is left?"  
  
Zim paused for a moment and scratched his chin. He then placed his hand on the window for a second, took it off and clenched it into a fist.  
  
"Everything. The universe is now mine to do with as I wish. I have no more obstacles. No more hinderances to what I am doing. It's quite thrilling actually."  
  
"Observation: I do not compute."  
  
"You're a machine of course you don't. Now leave me to my thoughts and keep piloting the ship."  
  
"Affirmative." The red light of the computer turned off and Zim returned to his gazing into space.   
  
"It's all mine." Zim smiled and then laughed maniacally as the ship continued its course.  
  
"Dib." The voice rang out, echoing off walls that did not exist. Coming from a source that had no form. Dib stood alone in the dark area of the recesses of his mind. "It's time to get up."  
  
Dib sat down and smiled.  
  
"Nothing exists for me anymore. There's no reason for me to get up." A tear rolled down Dib's cheek, he removed his glasses and wiped it away with his sleeve. "Everything's.....gone."  
  
"Now honey, that's no attitude for you."  
  
"......." Dib kept pouting, sitting still.  
  
"It's time to get up."  
  
"What did I just say? EARTH IS GONE!" Dib stood up and began yelling, his blood boiling. "THAT SON OF A BITCH STOLE IT FROM ME! I HAVE NOTHING LEFT!"  
  
"That's your perception of things, but what did I used to tell you?"  
  
Dib froze.  
  
"What did I used to tell you baby?"  
  
"That you would always be there for me." More tears began rolling down his cheek. Dib didn't bother wiping them away and stood silently, almost leaving the tears on his face as if they were a badge of courage.  
  
"Yes, and I have been."  
  
"LIAR!" Dib began shouting once again, clenching his fists. "YOU LEFT ME! LEFT THE FAMILY! YOU....left me."  
  
"Only on the outside." The voice spoke. "You know darn well that I've been with you this whole time. Now you pick yourself up off the ground and be strong for me baby. You need to be strong for me."  
  
"I....I...I will."  
  
"There's my baby. I'll always be with you." The voice spoke this much softer than everything else it had said and then vanished completely from Dib's mind.  
  
"NO! WAIT!" Dib useless tried to run at something which wasn't there in his mind. "MMOOOOTHER!"  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Dib cried out as he awoke from his near death experience. Panting and gasping for a few brief seconds, he looked down at the puddle of blood surrounding him and noticed the large amount of scars that were all over his person. He looked down at the turnicot made from his ripped jacket and realized it had saved him from dying of blood loss. He tried to move his arms to no avail, both of them being fractured in the fight with Zim.   
  
"Not...*cough*...good." Dib desperately dragged himself onto his feet, his vision still a little blurry, his glasses broken and bent beyond repair. He had trouble breathing, his windpipe partly damaged and fingered a number of the scars caused by the vacuum. Dib knew that he was in no shape to even approach Zim, not to mention kill him.   
  
He examined the room closely to see if there was anything there that may help him. Apparently he had jumped into Zim's biological lab, which had a number of subjects and chemicals in tubes and jars all over. He got discouraged when he looked at a number of strange items and found that they could do nothing to help him. Just as he was about to roll back down and die, Dib noticed a large bunch of strands inside a glass case in the corner of the room.  
  
"What the..." Dib limped over to it and read the description underneath the subject, written in both Irken and Human text. "Sloppy handwriting Zim. Can't decipher much of it. Something about nanotech is all I can come up with."  
  
Dib taped the glass with one of his good legs. Unfortunately, he taped it a little too hard, causing a hairline crack to appear on the glass.   
  
"Useless...*cough*" Dib slumped to the ground and laid down, awaiting death. "I'm sorry everyone, I can't fight anymore."  
  
Just as Dib said this, he began hearing cracking from the glass. His gaze met the glass case and he watched as the glass shattered apart. He could barely mouth a scream as the contents of the case overwhelmed him.   
  
"Landing procedure activated." The computer stated as it landed on the terrain of Irk. "Travel Time: One human week."  
  
"Hmmm." Zim muttered. "Guess my tinkering around with the Voot Runner's engines were well worth it. Got here in record time. Computer."  
  
The red light on the computer lit up, showing the computer was now active and ready to take orders from the self appointed ruler of the Irken empire.  
  
"Make my garments ready and make the empire known of my arrival."  
  
"Affirmative." The computer got to work, mechanical hands placing a cape, a strange crown, and various royal vestments on the tiny invader.  
  
"Perfect. Truly worthy of my visage." Zim looked down and admired his garments. He then walked to the door of the ship to his right and pushed a button to open it. "Now to receive my royal....WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"  
  
"This?" Purple said, standing behind thousands of armed Irken guards, mechanical robots, fighter ships and thousands of gun turrets. "This is your welcome traitor."  
  
"DON'T MOVE!" One of the guards shouted, pointing his gun at Zim, a red beam aimed right at his head.   
  
"You really are stupid aren't you Tallest?" Zim said smiling and shaking his head.  
  
"You're the only stupid creature here Zim. You were the joke of the empire when you were...sane. Merely a jester used to get us a laugh. Now that you've killed one of your rulers," Purple said, frustrated at the death of Red. "your punishment will be indescribable. You'll be tortured for years before your offered release. CAPTURE HIM THEN BEAT HIM TO WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE!"  
  
The guards all began to rush the tiny Irken, Zim still smiling to himself.   
  
"Automated System Override 3," Zim yelled out, confusing the guards and Purple. "Code Flying Death. INITIATE!"  
  
As Zim finished the sentence, all the mechanical robots, gun turrets, and battle ships began aiming at the guards and Purple.  
  
"WHAT? WHAT IS THIS?" Purple yelled out in a state of fear and confusion.   
  
"This oh all mighty tallest," Zim said walking easily past all the guards, thousands of red beams covering all of them. "Is called an overthrow of power. It is where I, the power hungry former invader, takes all of the technology on Irk and bends it to his own will with his newly developed programs and software."  
  
"This....this can't be happening." Purple said as he looked down at the tiny invader standing in front of him.  
  
"You didn't let me finish." Zim snapped his fingers, causing one of the ships to fire a large blast at Purple, ripping through the tall Irkens' arm, causing it to fall to the ground.  
  
"AAAAA!" Purple cried out in pain, holding the place where his arm once was."  
  
"Anyway, I am taking over the empire as I had previously stated. You tried to stop me, therefore you and half of these guards will be made example of." Zim once again snapped his fingers causing the ships and turrets to rip through half the guards and rip Purple's suit apart.   
  
"No...No..." Purple cried out as he looked down at his small form, much smaller than even Zim's.  
  
"Figured as much, you and your partner were never really tall. You were just in suits that made you seem that way. Pathetic at best."  
  
"Please...Can't end like this."  
  
"Yes that's it." Zim said as he placed his foot on Purple's head and began to push down. "Die as you lived, a pathetic nothing who grasped for what he could never have. You make me sick."  
  
Zim then pressed down as hard as he could, causing Purples head to snap and collapse underneath the pressure. Purple was barely able to let out a cry before his grey matter crashed through his skull and onto the ground. Zim smiled wickedly as he looked down at his foot covered in blood and what remained of Purple's form.   
  
"Now that that's finished." Zim said, looking down at what was left of the guards, all the machines behind him, guns at the ready. "Who do you serve?"  
  
All the remaining guards kneeled down before their new leader. Zim cackled maniacally as he had finally grasped his dream. He was now emperor of Irk and could do with it as he wished. He could only wait to burn his image into the cosmos. Whether they were around or not when he had finished was no longer of consequence. Zim had everything and nothing would stop him.   
  
Back in the landed ship, something stirred. It arose off the cold ground. Metal and bone, sinew and wires, chips and blood, electrons and neutrons firing beneath a newly restored body. The form began jumping around the room, testing itself. It ran with great speed from side to side and made a large dent in the hull of the ship with its fist. The form had black hair reaching its shoulder's, a newly repaired face with no more scars or injuries to note. It no longer had need of any glasses, and had a new silver jacket that reached it's feet. It walked out of the lab slowly, moving its fingers in anticipation and grinding on his teeth in anger. He had waiting long enough, his time was now.  
  
"All right Zim." Dib said in his newly formed body, thousands of microscopic chips scampering all over his form. "Round 2."  
  
End Chapter 5 


	6. Final Reign

So ends my first serious Zim tale, I've had fun with it but the time is right and the opprotunity is too good to miss. PS For those wanting a laugh, read College Zim and my recently updated Invader Dib 2 (tell me what ya think!) And now, without further ado....  
  
Invader Zim  
  
The Reign  
  
"Dib's log," Dib said aloud, talking into a tiny machine on his arm spawned from the nanomachines. "I would say the date but I'm not really sure what day it is. Zim has pretty much self appointed himself as emperor of his planet. Disposing of his leaders, he rules it tyrannically. Using my newly developed body, I've been able to blend into my surroundings using holographic imagery and things of that nature. Zim has truly gone insane. First by slaughtering all the criminal/violent figures on his planet and then by having the executions monitored by the general populace, trying to spur on a love of such sickness amongst the people. Once all the criminals had been eradicated, Zim began wiping out those deemed unworthy in his own eyes. Irken men, women, and children were wiped out without a second thought."  
  
Dib stopped in mid recording, cringed, and clenched his fists.  
  
"God, even they didn't deserve this. Uprisings were begun throughout the planet. Thousands stood together for a common good, the destruction of Zim. However, Zim controlled the machines and without their machinery, the Irkens were nothing more than rag dolls against my enemy. Despite my attempts to help along the way, knowledge of my existence absolutely could not be detected by Zim, in fear that my assasination attempt may go unfulfilled. I made myself known to various factions on the planet, helped get them resources, weaponry, things of that nature. One by one, however, they were struck down."  
  
Dib stopped once again, finding himself leaning against the nearest rock on top of a large crevace, overlooking a bleak, large Irken city.   
  
"The population has been reduced drastically, with the executions and the uprisings. Those loyal to Zim are sent out in droves to other planets so that they may be colonized and re-educated under the law of Zim. Zim himself has become a no show, never seeming to appear anywhere in front of the public. Only pictures and videos are seen of the all mighty emperor. Heh. Reminds me of Star Wars."  
  
Dib laughed uneasily.  
  
"I've made the adjustments necessary to work my new body, tinkering away at it and gaining a better understanding of the nano-technology that helped cure my injuries in my battle with Zim on his ship. Hopefully it will give me the advantage needed to bring him down. I pray that it is enough. Zim's citadal is in the middle of the city below, where I will take my last crack at him. It is only speculation, but rumor states that he never leaves the comfort of his fortress. Hopefully the rumors are true."  
  
Dib looked up at the sky, noticing the thousands of billions of stars overhead.  
  
"God...... I used to be so content. I used to look up at the skies and dream of things to come. I dreamt of a future I now realize will never come. I know now that I'll never see my 18th birthday. Never go to college. Never experience any of the things that make life worth living. Never father a family. Its sad when thought of in retrospect, all that I've lost."  
  
Dib sighed, holding back the tears, still staring at the sky.  
  
"I'm the last of my species. With me, humanity becomes a memory. I can only hope that whoever hears this will try to hear my words and think of a people who lived their lives day by day. Who, although plagued by wars and fear, tried their best to do right in their own lives. If you only remember humanity for one thing, please remember how we persevered, how our thoughts and hopes and religions and shortcomings, made us who we were. Please remember....because I know...."  
  
Dib stood up off the rock and looked down at the city once more, a scowl growing on his face.  
  
"I won't be coming back from this one."  
  
Dib turned off the recorder, took out a small disc out of his arm, dug a hole in the ground and placed it in. Patching up the hole with dirt, a small laser grew out of the nanomachines on his arm. The laser sprang to life, firing at the rock nearest the hole in a steady beam. After two minutes of maneuvering the beam, Dib stopped and read what he had wrote.   
  
"Here lies Humanity. Learn from our mistakes and hopefully God will smile on you more than he had on us."  
  
Dib read the epitaph for his people and smiled.  
  
"Worthy of Shakespeare. Hehehe." Dib forced out a laugh once again, then began walking away. His walking quickly changed into a sprint, as he ran full force at the edge of the crevace. His legs pounded down on the ground, and launched him high into the air, causing him to free fall over the lighted city. With no fear in his eyes, Dib fell faster and faster to the ground below. Right before impact however, Dib extended his legs downward as he careened toward Zim's fortress. He smashed against the ground with a large crash, the metal underneath giving way and cracking under his force. He knelt there for three seconds, right in front of Zim's door, smirking as a group of Irken military scrambled towards him.  
  
"In the name of Zim, STATE YOUR BUSINESS!" A guard said, lifting a gun so close to Dib's head it was touching his scalp.  
  
"My business? Well, death, destruction, retribution, you know how it goes." Dib grabbed the barrel of the gun with lightning speed, flipped it on his assailant and pulled the trigger. The force shattered the guard's body, splattering blood and entrails on a number of the other guards close to him. Taking the opprotunity at hand, Dib launched himself up into the air and backflipped his way behind the guards.  
  
"There's this whole new thing I call mercy. Its something I used to know how to do, unfortunately, thats no longer part of the job description." Two tiny gun turrets appeared on Dib's arms as he began firing into the group, striking down all of the Irkens in the group swiftly. Once all the guards were down, the guns on Dib's arms melted back into the machinery from which they came and Dib turned, walking casually toward the door.  
  
"FREEZE!" A remaining guard said, pointing a large blaster at Dib from behind.  
  
"Consider yourself lucky," Dib said, putting his hands in the air as the guard began to shake nervously. "Put down the gun and just walk away."  
  
"N..naa..nooo." The guard quivered, terrified out of his mind. His finger edged along the trigger as a large blast fired from the barrel of his gun. At the milisecond of the blast leaving the chamber, Dib flashed out of the guard's sight and appeared behind him.  
  
"Stupid." The guard could barely mouth a scream as Dib's fist punched through his upper torso.   
  
"SIR!" A guard said, running up to a shadowy section of a room deep within the heavily guarded fortress.  
  
"What is it?" Zim demanded from the shadows.  
  
"Our protectorate divion in charge of guarding the front entrance have been...."  
  
"Have....been.....WHAT?" Zim yelled out, walking over to the messenger.  
  
"Have been decimated."   
  
"WHO? WHO DID IT?" Zim asked, gnashing his teeth. The messenger pointed up to the screen showing Dib bursting through the main gate, killing every guard that stood in his way. "Ahhhhhhh. Who else could it be but you?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Turn off all the mechanical defense system and other machinery leading to this room." Zim smiled.  
  
"But sir, that will leave you defenseless. With the way he's going through our security, there will be no way of stopping him without our systems."  
  
"I'm counting on it." Zim looked out a window closest to him in his large fortress. "However, employ more troops, give young Dib a little food for thought on his way up."  
  
Meanwhile, a few floors lower.....  
  
"JUST...DON'T....KNOW WHEN TO QUIT DO YOU?" Dib cried out, running down yet another group of guards in his way. There was no second thought given by Dib as he dismembered, decapitated, and eviscerated every last being in his path, thoughts of everything gone to him echoing in his head.   
  
"And so the wheel goes round." Zim's voice blasted over an intercom within the fortress. As the voice blared, Dib let go of an already dead guard in his grasp. "How are things Dib?"  
  
"Still a self pretentious little prick aren't you Zim?" Dib said, continuing to run near stairs closest to him.  
  
"Sticks and Stones Dib, Sticks and Stones." Zim laughed, Dib becoming more angry with each passing word. "Does it hurt? Thinking about them? Your family? Your world? Your life? How they're all gone because you could never come close to what I was?"  
  
"Keep talking Zim, just keep talking." Dib yelled out, his pace moving faster with each step.  
  
"But please, don't allow me to interrupt your path of vengeance. It suprises me that you're alive after all this time, sprouting with nanotechnology no less. An experiment I had long given up on. It will be interesting to note all the changes that you went through as I dissect your corpse."   
  
"We'll see Zim!"  
  
"Of course we will, after all you certainly have become an unstoppable killing machine haven't you now? Mowing down hundreds of guards at a time without a second glance. Your more of a vision of what I wanted you to become than I could ever imagine! HAHAHAAHA!" Zim laughed cruelly from the intercoms.  
  
"DAMN YOU! SHUUUUTT UPPPPP!" Dib reached the top of the stairs and smashed through the door in front of him as if it were tinfoil. He stopped as he saw Zim standing, now in a completely different body. It resembled a suit worn by the former rulers of Irk, the Tallest. His face was now darker, his eyes a much darker red. His green complection was now much darker, obvioulsy showing from the time of isolation he had spent hiding on his throne.   
  
"HA! Even after all this time, you still need to turn away from your worthlessness by hiding behind a mechanical suit that enhances your height! Never could take being short and insignificant could you Zim? Your still as pathetic as the first day we met, if not more so."  
  
"Trying to break me down with psychological tricks Dib? I'm not that stupid, so give me more credit."   
  
"I'LL GIVE YOU NOTHING EXCEPT A PAINFUL AND EXCRUCIATING..." Dib lifted his arms up at Zim and awaited the guns to appear. After a few seconds of waiting, Dib looked down at his arms confusedly. "WHAT THE HELL? NO NOT NOW!"  
  
"When I made it clear to the populace that I had complete control over all the machinery on the planet, I MEANT IT!" With a snap of his fingers, all of the tiny nanomachines ripped themselves off of Dib. The young earthling screamed as the nanomachines departure caused a number of large rips in his skin to emerge.   
  
"God...aakk...cough....." Dib coughed up a large amount of blood, as he hit the floor, trying to rise to his feet.  
  
"You were never a challenge for me." One of Zim's mechanical legs stretched back, then slammed at full force into Dib's face. The blow knocked out three of Dib's teeth and sent him sprawling into a nearby wall.  
  
"After all....aakkk..." More blood rushed out of Dib's mouth as he slumped against the wall, smiling. "thats happened....hhaaaakkkk.....it ends like this?"  
  
"I'm afraid so." Zim smiled as his hand latched onto Dib's throat and lifted him up to the former invader's face. "Hear that? That's the sound of your windpipe collapsing."  
  
Dib wheezed as he struggled to break free of Zim's grasp, getting tighter by the second. After a couple of minutes struggling out of Zim's grasp, Dib's body went limp.  
  
"Garbage." Zim threw the apparently lifeless body to the far corner of the room. "Not even enough to.....What is....?"  
  
Zim looked down at his body, noticing a tiny device which was flashing red on the lower part of his suit.   
  
"Hey...Zim..." Dib tried to yell out, only to release a whisper. He waved a remote detonator in his hand, a smile came upon his face as more blood gushed between his teeth. "YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE!"  
  
Zim frantically tried to remove the bomb planted on his suit, but to no avail. Dib pressed the button without hesitation, blowing Zim clear out of his suit. Zim almost ripped right through the wall as the explosion sent him hurdling from his now decimated suit. His body slumped against the wall, quivering and twitching slightly. His legs were totalled, torn apart and broken from the explosion, with large pieces of shrapenel protruding out of his body. Dib pulled himself off the floor, and limped over to the downed Irken.   
  
"Still....alive?" Dib wheezed, poking the Irken with his foot. "GOOD!"  
  
Dib kicked Zim hard in the stomach, causing the Irken to scream horribly.   
  
"How does it feel now Zim? *Hack* *Cough* How does it feel?" Dib said, lowering himself to the still twitching Irken.   
  
"Kill....you....." Zim whispered, reaching for Dib's throat. Dib slapped away the feeble attempt and placed his foot on one of the jagged pieces of metal sticking out of Zim. He pressed down hard on the shrapenel, causing Zim to scream out, green blood oozing out of the wound.  
  
"After all you did *hack* to me and my planet, this is what you get. Your empire will fall with you, you son of a bitch *hack* *cough*. What do you have to say before you go to hell?"  
  
"Well....first....off," Zim said, rolling over on his back, blood rushing out of him more rapidly. "Life's....a...bitch....Second...."  
  
Zim reached into his suit and pulled out a small device.  
  
"Contingency plans......make...all...the....difference." Zim pressed the large red button on the device. His grip let go of the device, as the life once in him left.   
  
"Dead." Dib said as he spit on Zim's corpse. "Rot in peace."   
  
Limping over to the window, Dib looked out on the city and smiled. He felt as the building begin to give way, explosions bursting around him. Zim had rigged his fortress with explosives in case the need ever arose for him to get rid of his tower and this was the perfect time to do it. Dib continued to smile as the explosions grew closer and closer.  
  
"Guys." Dib said as fire began to run over him. "I'm coming home."   
  
End "The Reign" 


End file.
